Wasp Flyby

I didn’t notice this at the time:

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The camera runs at 60 frame/s, so the entire show spans a bit more than half a second: zzzzzip!

I think it’s a member of the Yellow Jacket wasp family, noted for their in-your-face attitude and repeat-fire stinger. They’re highly capable flying machines, that’s for sure…

We were pulling out of the local “health food” store with fresh-ground nut butters in the packs, nearing the end of a 17 mile loop on a fine Sunday morning.

 

4 thoughts on “Wasp Flyby

  1. We get paper wasps in addition to yellow jackets. Same bad attitude, and a tendency to build nests in inconvenient places. The sting really gets your attention.

    1. Mary had an attention-getter before we got the bike fairings: maintaining your balance in traffic with a nuclear fireball growing in your thigh definitely tests your cycling skills!

  2. I fed one to a mantis once. Mantids are FAST, and she had no trouble grabbing it out of midair on the first try. Eating it was another story, wasps are well-equipped warriors and quite difficult to eat, even by a predator a hundred times their size. The mantis did eventually manage it, of course, but had to snip off most of the legs first.

    1. Predators are fast when there’s a meal involved! We were the front yard yesterday when a hawk stooped on a mouse maybe 70 feet away. It hit talons-first, hopped once, bit the spine, waited for the flopping to taper off, launched with lunch in one claw, and landed on a branch for defuzzification: Game Over in under a minute.

      If I had to find a mouse in the front yard, I’d be a long time looking and even longer catching!

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